The Battle of Leyte Gulf between Japanese and U.S. forces took place 70 years ago.

In 1959, reflecting on the Battle of Leyte Gulf from a distance of 15 years, TIME declared that the World War II engagement — between the Japanese navy and U.S. troops on and around the island of Leyte,...read more

... The picture in question, made by LIFE’s Carl Mydans on Jan. 9, 1945, shows MacArthur striding ashore onto the beach at Lingayen, on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. That Mydans’ photograph does not capture the return to the Philippines—the return that MacArthur promised in his single...read more